Human
by ArcherBatGhost
Summary: AU where Thomas, Martha, and Damian all die on June 26th. Bruce is having a hard time around the one year anniversary of Damian's death. The rating is all paranoia. -Gemini


Human-Chapter 1-Bruce's POV [new]

A/N Just so you guys know; this is an AU. I messed with some of the dates so that Damian, Thomas, and Martha all die on the 26th of June. After Dami died Tim took the mantle back up despite Bruce's protests. Therefore Dick is around Roy's age, or a little older. At this point Dami has been dead for a year. The original young justice team from the show with the exception of Tim being robin instead of Dick.

-Gemini

June 25, 4:00 PM-The Bat cave

It was that time of the year again. The time where all I usually do is sit in the cave and brood, if I'm not out on patrol. Every year Dick and Alfred try to convince me to snap out of it. To sleep. To do anything besides beat criminals to a bloody pulp. Not that there are many criminals to punish. They must have learned over the years. Don't trifle with the Bat on the week of June 26. They might have brains after all.

Then I think about Superman's invite to spend some time up in the watchtower. I know I can't, however. After having an "open mind" for so long J'onn can't effectively close it, therefore it hurts him to be anywhere near me this time of year. Not that he says that, but I can tell. I've always been able to tell. It's also too early to go out for patrol. The team, however much I loathe admitting it, can't be neglected for this long. I need to go check on them. At least M'gann keeps her mind closed. That should keep her from feeling too much of my inner turmoil. And besides that, I already busted all of the Meta training dummies I keep in the bat cave. And put holes in all of the punching bags. I need an outlet. So I get up out of my chair and head to the zeta beams that I had heavily encrypted and installed in the Bat cave.

June 25, 4:10 PM-Happy Harbor

As I enter the cave Tim drops from the rafters and lands behind me. I turn to face him and I can see on his face that he was glad that I was out of the cave, even if I just replaced it with another one. Then Connor came in to the room.

"Do you have a mission for us?" He asks as he walks over. He stops dead in his tracks when he saw what shows on my face. I haven't taken the armor off for anything but showering for several days. Therefore I have not shaved for several days, and a black five o'clock shadow covered my exposed jaw. I ignored his wide-eyed gaze and answered with a stark no before I turned with a whirl of my cape and started to walk out of the room into the winding hallways of the cave.

Connor slowly turned to Robin after the Bat disappeared down the hall. He had never seen the Bat quite that disturbed. Sure, he went with Tim to see him after he had been injured before, but he wasn't an idiot. The way he moved screamed sleep deprivation and malnourishment, and he had obviously hadn't shaven in a week, or at least a few days. Something was wrong with the Bat. That was never a good sign.

Robin sighed. There was no way around it or good way to say it.

"Tomorrow is an anniversary for him. For all of us in the Bat clan, really. He has always had problems operating this time of year, but after what happened last year, I'm surprised that he's up and moving right now at all. He has been going on patrol, but he won't let any of us shadow him. He has been more violent than usual, if the condition of the bat cave training room is anything to go by."

After saying this, Tim turned back towards a different hallway than his mentor had disappeared down. Connor knew there was more to the story but didn't push it. He wasn't going to get anything else out of Tim right now. So he let it go, for now.

Bruce's POV-MOUNT JUSTICE-4:15

As I silently storm through the cave's halls I try not to think too much. My muscles are tense with force that has yet to be relieved. As I move through the cave, checking the corridors. While turning a corner, however, I accidentally came chest to face with Canary. I mentally scold myself for not paying more attention to my surroundings. She must have let Miss Martian out of the 3:30 training session earlier than I anticipated. She stared for a second in wide eyed shock before completely blocking the narrow hallway.

"What happened?" She asked, just stern enough to get the point that she wasn't budging on the subject, but not unkind or disrespectfully. I simply glare at her, willing her to move, knowing that physically moving her was out of the question. We were both members of the league and surrounded by the team. We have to set a good example; whether we like it or not.

"The Bat cave's training room is offline. I presume that you are done with it." I said in a monotone voice.

"Then you won't mind if I come with you." She challenges.

"Fine." I bark, not having a reason readily available to stop her. She then moves aside to let me by. Then I lead the way to the training room.

Once we enter the training room I am so tense and angry that it was all I could do not to punch a wall. Canary is still following me and watching me closely. I can feel her gaze even through the cowl, and I know she is trying to will me into telling her what's wrong. She must have forgotten that THE anniversary is tomorrow.

I bring up the holographic computer in my gauntlet and I bring up the training controls. A few months ago I updated the training room in the Mountain so it would have the same capacity or operating as the ones in the watchtower. I set the difficulty to twelve. It immediately asks for my password. I set it up that way because it would kill anyone but me.

"Get to the observation area. Now." I growl over my shoulder as I prepare for the oncoming fight.

Canary's POV

As I get to the observation area I mentally call out to Megan. She responds immediately and I tell her to gather the team and come to the training room. I figure that no one here besides robin has ever seen the Bat in action. I think it would be good for them to watch him in his element, even if it is only training.

When the training session starts, I start to become concerned by the members and speed that the hard light projections and the drones are coming at him. About five minutes after Batman started the training session the team minus robin walked in. The bat either didn't notice them or ignored them. Probably the latter. They then gathered near me and Kaldur asked: "What is this about?"

"Observation. Have any of you, besides robin, ever watched batman train, much less fight?" They mumble in agreement. Then we all turn back towards the training area where batman is demolishing drones with deadly accuracy. All of the blows have been lethal so far. It sends a chill through her to be reminded that if his monumental control ever broke, Bruce could be the perfect killing machine.

Suddenly, one of the drones looms larger than the rest. It is dressed in white and has two pieces of metal tied to its head with rope. They look earily like the ears batman has on his cowl. I hear Bruce call him 'harbinger'. I don't recognize the name, but he becomes more aggressive. Then, Bruce throws explosive pellets at him and tackles him before jumping up into the rafters. The drone closely follows him up, followed by a dozen ninjas. The fight proceeds for a short while before the large drone gets a lucky shot and the bat falls to the ground, not able to get his grapple fast enough in the time of the one and a half story fall. He then quickly got to his feet as his opponents dropped down. He then dodges a blow with a sword aimed at his chest and takes the sword from him. He proceeds to decapitate three of the nearest goons with speed and a flip. In a matter of minutes, all of the ninja holograms are down and it is just the drone and batman. The bat then throws away the sword and charges the drone. It throws him across the room, hitting a wall. Batman picks himself up and they start to charge each other again when suddenly robin drops from a vent between them in the ceiling, quickly realizing where he is and gaining the 'oh shit' look on his face. The large drone lifts the dull end of its large sward and tries to hit robin in the back, but Bruce gets there just in time to shield the bird and he takes the powerful blow to the side of his head. Robin gets to safety as the Bat crashes to the floor. We all expect that the training session will end, but it doesn't. We are all about to rush in and intervene when robin rushes over. "Don't go in! It's connected to the vital stats in the suit. It will automatically shut off soon." He said as he turned back to see his father get crushed under the drone's foot. He was clenching his teeth when the drone leaned down and punched him where the blade had struck. Batman passed out and the drone took a step back and shut down. Robin was the first one to react and raced to batman's side. He grabbed his father's hand as he drops to his knees. There was a pool of blood forming around his head. I was following close behind him to assess the amount of damage that he had sustained.

It only took a few seconds before I was crouching next to the prone figure of the bat. Between Tim and I we had the armor off of his chest, as well as the under armor, in a minute. There appeared to be heavy bruising, but that's not what I was the most worried about. What really worried me is the head injury, and the prospect of punctured lungs from broken ribs. We need the cowl off of him to assess the damage. Tim and I look at each other, coming to a conclusion. He wouldn't live to be angry with us if he bled out on the cave floor. So Tim hit the buttons on the belt that disarmed the safety measures in the cowl and then I took it off of him as Tim tore a piece out of his cape to help slow the bleeding. While he was doing that, I reached up and gently removed the cowl.


End file.
